‘Killing Kennedy’: Ginnifer Goodwin Challenged By Assassination Scene

Ginnifer reveals she struggled while portraying Jackie Kennedy’s ‘shock’ at the moment of JFK’s death.

Nov. 10 was a pretty big night for Ginnifer Goodwin. Not only did she have to traverse the dangers of Neverland on ABC’s Once Upon A Time, but she was also charged with reviving an American icon in National Geographic’s Killing Kennedy. Based on the book by Bill O’Reilly, Kennedy found Ginnifer, 35, playing Jackie Kennedy — alongside Rob Lowe as President John Fitzgerald Kennedy — during the most tragic moments of her life, as our nation suffered one of its all-time greatest losses.

From the moment the movie began at 8 p.m., it was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, alongside Once. And during a live Twitter chat with People magazine, Ginnifer took fans behind the scenes of the biopic, including the most difficult scene she and Rob had to film together:

.@peoplemag@FairestPanda The assassination sc = the hardest bc your instinct is to FEEL it, but in the moment they were confused& in shock.

She also noted that the post-assassination scenes were filmed on her first day. (Talk about a diving right in!)

‘Killing Kennedy’ Reviews: What The Critics Had To Say

Unfortunately for Ginnifer, Killing Kennedy received less-than-favorable reviews from many top critics. HollywoodLife.com‘s sister site Variety, for example, had some particularly unflattering words for the NatGeo production:

Too often feeling like a book report version of history (especially compared to the numerous productions based on this material, most recently the miniseries The Kennedys), the movie races through JFK’s election, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and his notorious ‘woman problem’ (as brother Bobby puts it) before that fateful day in Dallas.

Still, the trade notes that Killing Kennedy will likely still prove to be a ratings victory for the cable network.